On behalf of our entire community, a very heartfelt thank you to the PTA’s iFest Committee so ably led by Co-Chairs, Daisy Qian and Debjani Basu. Last Saturday was a wonderful celebration of the diversity of our community and we are enormously grateful to the many volunteers who contributed so much time and energy to making the day such a success. It was truly a joy to see so many smiling faces enjoying the amazing food, cultural performances, activities, raffle, student clubs, and stalls. Thank you to everyone involved and to our sponsors – your support is deeply appreciated.

The celebration of diversity that iFest embodies was the perfect segue for this week’s In Service Day. Attended by all employees, In Service is a day of professional learning, growth, and development that focuses on deepening our collective understanding and practices around our Guiding Statements and Strategic Objectives. Our focus for this In Service was Global Citizenship, Service, and Sustainability. To support our learning in these key areas we have partnered with Inspire Citizens, an educational organization that helps leading schools actively engage in positively contributing to the world via the classroom, local communities, and beyond.

In fulfilling our Vision and empowering our students to create a better world, we need to teach them how to do it by helping them develop the skills, competencies, and self-confidence they need to become agents of change and make a difference. During In Service and throughout the week, Aaron Moniz Co-founder and Director of Inspire Citizens has been conducting workshops for faculty and staff on embedding teaching and learning processes that integrate service and sustainability into our curriculum and instruction. This work builds on what is already happening in the classroom as well as through our student clubs, Red Hat initiatives, Malaysia Week, and Global Action Program. Intentionally incorporating real-world issues into the classroom and cocurricular activities increases the retention of knowledge and student engagement. Importantly, it also builds student understanding of the importance of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and awareness of the challenges facing the planet and how each of us can have a positive impact.

Aaron also led a VOX ISKL for parents on Wednesday (November 29) explaining the importance of this work and the role parents can play in helping their child/ren contribute to a more sustainable future. Whether it is a simple everyday task such as showing how to sew on a button or mending a tear through to committing our skills, passion, and competencies to a cause we are interested in – our actions collectively create a school community that becomes a center for impact. A recording of Aaron’s presentation will be shared on ISKL’s YouTube channel shortly.

Continuing the theme of helping our students navigate real-world challenges, we are looking forward to our next Head of School & Parents In Partnership event next week. We will be recapping the session we held in November and exploring the role parents and our school play in helping children understand and know themselves, how to bridge cultural differences, and contribute to creating a better world.

Rami Madani
Head of School